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Scriptorium Blogorium

1 Afterward
he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out
from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from
under from the right side of the house, at the south side
of the altar….

8 Then
said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down
into the desert, and go into the sea: which being
brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

9 And
it shall come to pass, that every thing that
liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and
there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come
thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river
cometh….

11 But the
miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be
given to salt.

12 And by the
river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all
trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be
consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their
waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for
meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

I love the imagery of how
these living waters heal make everything live and how they come from the
temple. I also think it is profound how this river (moving water) has all the
trees growing and fruiting on both sides of it.

Contrast this with what it
says of the marshes and miry places where the water is stagnant. Those places
will not be healed and are salty and dead.

To me that teaches how our
conversion needs to move us to do things, to bear fruit. If we stop moving
forward, we stagnate and start to die.

A few weeks ago I went to an institute class on the Book of
Mormon that talked about literary forms in the Book of Mormon. They talked
about parallelism andchiasmus and
how John Welch was made aware of chiasmus in the Bible and how he discovered it
in the Book of Mormon too.

I remember my first exposure to the form of chiasmus. A BYU
professor taught about it in my Book of Mormon class back in 1998, and at the
time I thought it was terribly far-fetched. The teacher pointed out how a whole
chapter in Alma was one massive chiasmus, and my skeptical mind doubted this
was a real thing and wondered how anyone would have figured it out.

Well, this institute class answered that. John Welch had been taught to see chiasmus in the Bible (see
link for 10 minute Youtube video on the story) and had opened the Book of Mormon randomly and noticed repeated two
repeated words, then similar ideas above and below that repetition.He’d stumbled on the middle point of
emphasis, and then found the parallelisms that spread outward from there.The wording didn’t have to be
identical; it was the theme that
could be repeated.

That made more sense to me.

And then it struck me how fabulous it was that this form was
used in scripture. If it is the idea
or theme that is repeated, then the
exact wording isn’t as important.In contrast, take the poetic idea of rhyme. A poem that rhymes is very
difficult to translate across languages because the same words in another
language may not rhyme. You lose part of the cleverness and artistry in
translation.But parallel ideas
and themes presented in chiastic form will remain unchanged, no matter the
language.

I’ve run across an edition of the Book of Mormon that has
actually worked at all kinds of places where parallelisms and chiasmuses
appear, and uses indentation to make those forms more obvious.It’s fascinating to run your eye along
the page and see the form. (But it’s
more difficult to read.)

And then something else occurred to me.I remembered Moroni’s lament about
weakness in writing and stumbling over word placement, worrying the gentiles
would mock his writing.Could it
be possible that he assumed the gentiles would know parallelism and chiasmus
and see where he couldn’t get it to work quite right? Could it be he worried
the gentiles would dismiss his message because he couldn’t achieve the highest
literary form as often as he wanted to?

He didn’t know we would be so much more interested in the
flow of meaning than in the form. He didn’t know we’d know almost nothing about
the literary structure they were trying to shoehorn their message into. After
all, chiasmus is an optimization problem, as a writer tries to structure his
message in a pattern of repeating ideas. (There is always a risk that the form
will start to torture the meaning and read awkwardly.)If the Book of Mormon writers ever do
chiasmus badly, and we don’t quite see how it goes, it is probably because they
departed from the form in greater service to the meaning, and we can be
grateful for that.

67 When
I called again there was none of you to answer; yet my arm was not shortened at
all that I could not redeem, neither my power to deliver.

68 Behold,
at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish
stink, and die for thirst.

69 I
clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering.

70 And
this shall ye have of my hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow. (D&C 133:67-70)

In this section the Lord is warning
what His answer will be to those who do not repent—that they will suffer the
consequences of their rebellion.

The part that tells of the natural
phenomena that happens at the Lord’s rebuke I used to interpret through the
lens of the story of Exodus and the children of Israel’s deliverance from
Egypt, as though it is a promise of all the ways the Lord can manipulate nature
to bring the salvation of His people. (He parted the Red Sea, parted the Jordan
river, plagued the Egyptians with darkness, along with other afflictions) I interpreted
it this way because a lot of it is a quotation (or a reworking of a quote) from
Isaiah 50:2-3, and so many times Isaiah makes reference to the events of the
Exodus to teach.

But I’ve realized there is yet another
interpretation for it that is a warning. It is a warning to the Saints about
the awful consequences of losing the Spirit if they sin and have to be
excommunicated. The natural phenomena are used figuratively to represent the
major negative spiritual changes that will happen—your sea can be dried up.
Your river can become desert. Spiritual life can die. The bright sunny sky will
turn very dark for you. Happiness turns to misery. At His rebuke, all of this
will happen because of His great power.

That’s pretty dire, and from time to
time we are reminded of accounts of a few early church members who were pretty
high up in church leadership who left the church and they had this kind of
experience.

So, I think when the Lord says He has
power to deliver, it is a two-sided thing. He has power to deliver us from sin,
but if we don’t repent, He has power to deliver us over to darkness.

None of us want that.

I’m grateful to know of the Lord’s
great mercy and long-suffering and patience to us all and how many times and
all the ways He invites us to come unto Him. I love verse 67 that says even
though so many times we don’t answer the Lord’s call, the Lord still has power
to redeem and deliver. Whether or not we believe in Christ, He still has power
to save, so why not choose to believe?We have to keep turning to Him.

After the
tragedies and difficulties at Ammonihah, we get this little bit:

3 And
also Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, which was caused by the
great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness, for he supposed
that Alma and Amulek were no more; and he supposed that they had been slain
because of his iniquity. And this great sin, and his many other sins, did
harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance;
therefore he began to be scorched with a burning heat.

4 Now,
when he heard that Alma and Amulek were in the land of Sidom, his heart began
to take courage; and he sent a message immediately unto them, desiring them to
come unto him. (Alma 15:3-4)

I notice that Zeezrom began
to be tormented about his sins, and he thought his wickedness caused the deaths
of Alma and Amulek. He had no knowledge of their true fates, but he assumed the
worst. It is easy to understand that he might feel like he deserved to suffer
for what he did.

But on the other hand, it
could be argued that he didn’t
deserve to feel this way because when we look at his actions, even though he
began by attacking Alma and Amulek, his heart changed, and he began to defend
them instead.But that seemed to
count for nothing with him. Something
made him forget his more recent better works and only remember his wickedness.

Satan really wanted Zeezrom
to be miserable, so he played upon Zeezrom’s ignorance about Alma and Amulek’s
fates and put a ton of blame and torment upon him, using Zeezrom’s awakened
conscience against him.

Happily, when Zeezrom heard
Alma and Amulek were alive and in Sidom,, this immediately showed him his fears
concerning them were false. This gave him the courage to act and call them to
come. It would take courage to again face
those he had feared he had so badly wronged, but he did it, and through more
faith in Christ, was able to gain full relief from the rest of his suffering.

I think there’s an important
lesson for us here. Satan tries to make our sins seem so awful that there is no
hope. He wants us conscious of our awful state, but he also wants to catastrophize
the consequences and steal our hope that we can ever escape, or repent, or
improve—all to make us miserable. (And
he will try to make things seem particularly bad when we are tired, hungry,
lonely, bored, stressed, or sick.) We just have to remember that Satan LIES.
Things are not as bad as he makes them seem. We have to take courage and act in faith, believing that
Christ can heal us, help us, give us strength, forgive us, save us.

21 And
this Zeezrom began to question Amulek, saying: Will ye answer me a few questions
which I shall ask you? Now Zeezrom was a man who was expert in the devices of
the devil, that he might destroy that which was good; therefore, he said unto
Amulek: Will ye answer the questions which I shall put unto you?

22 And
Amulek said unto him: Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which
is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord…

I love that Amulek says he
will answer questions according to the Spirit of the Lord. Shouldn’t we all go
through our lives with that same determination to follow the Spirit as to
whether we answer questions or not, and take our answers according to the Spirit?

Amulek’s Spirit-led answers
brought out important doctrines that were under deep scrutiny, and he might
have had reason to feel worried about how they would be received, but he
followed the Spirit, and that made his answers powerful enough that Zeezrom was
ultimately affected to the extent that he decided to change and become more
honest. Amulek’s spiritual honesty inspired Zeezrom to be honest with himself
about the consequences of what he was doing.

I also notice that aside
from revealing Zeezrom’s little trap, Amulek spoke mostly about general
principles of repentance, accountability, and judgment.

11 For
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now
if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble;

13 Every
man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort
it is.

14 If
any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
(1 Cor. 3:11-14)

I always kind of wondered about this
scripture, but this time it made more sense to me. It’s saying everyone’s work
is tested in a particular way to see if it can stand through trial.

Missionary work is tested through
others’ indifference or persecution. Love is tested through separation, loss,
common events of life, and differences of opinion. Faith is tested by seeming
to be left unsupported by God. Our work is tested when it becomes difficult or
thankless. Habits of scripture reading may be tested by a period when one seems
to have gotten nothing from it. Good parenting is tested with difficult
children or children going through difficult stages. Can it all endure the
test? That is the question.

Paul says Christ is the foundation to
build upon, so His way is the best way to do things. But then our motives
matter as well. If we’re doing the right thing for the wrong reason, a
difficult trial might stop us unless we can start doing it for the right
reason. For instance, doing missionary work for praise or status would cease if
one finds they lose status or are maligned, unless they can choose to do it
anyway, to bring souls to God and try to help people.

Now Ammon said unto him: I can
assuredly tell thee, O king [Limhi], of a man that can translate the records;
for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of
ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters,
and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for
that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in
them, the same is called seer. (Mosiah 8:13)

The context for this verse is Ammon telling King Limhi that
there is a seer who can translate the gold plates that were found.It is neat to think that we have
prophets, seers, and revelators leading our church today, but I think there are
principles here that can apply in our
lives, particularly concerning our individual internet use and safety.

Note the danger that Ammon highlights—“lest he should look
for that he ought not and he should perish”.We don’t know how a seer might perish from wrong use of the
Urim & Thummim, but the same danger certainly applies for internet
use.There is the danger of looking
at thinks we ought not, as well as spending so much time looking at less
consequential things that one fritters away their life.

The principle implied for wise use of the Urim & Thummim
is to be purposeful about use, according to commandment. It doesn’t specify
whether it is God’s commandment or man’s commandment, but you get the idea that
since it is a gift from God, you would use it according to God’s commandment. I
think the same is true for use of the internet.

The situations seem a bit different in the frequency of use.
The Urim & Thummim seems like something that would be used rarely (except
we don’t have record of all the times it was used), whereas the internet is so
embedded in our society now. Still, the principle of purposeful use according
to God’s commandment (or following God’s commandments) is useful for keeping us
out of trouble when we use the internet today.

7 Then
after that saith he [Jesus] to his disciples,
Let us go into Judæa again.

8 His
disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and
goest thou thither again?

9 Jesus
answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

10 But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
(John 11:7-10)

This little story always puzzled me. Was it saying somehow
Jesus was reassured of His safety because He could see? What could He see? Did
He know what would happen and that made it so He could avoid it?

I had to pray about this one. Gradually I realized Jesus was
saying that because He had instructions from Heavenly Father to go to Judea
again, by following those instructions (walking in the light), He would be
okay, even if it looked like He was walking into danger. He trusted the
revelation over the appearance of danger.

But if He hadn’t had that revelation, going there would be like walking into the dark with
lots of things to trip over.

When you think about the kind of faith Jesus shows to do
that, it is AMAZING. It’s a great example for us. I aspire to that kind of
faith.

1 And
there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2 And
she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And
there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And
his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the
earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered,
for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And
she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:
and her child was caught up unto God, and to
his throne.

6 And
the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God,
that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

7 And
there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and
the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And
prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
were cast out with him.

10 And
I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;
and they loved not their lives unto the death.

12 Therefore
rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13 And
when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman
which brought forth the man child.

14 And
to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the
wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and
half a time, from the face of the serpent.

15 And
the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he
might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

16 And
the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up
the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

17 And
the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her
seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ. (Revelation 12)

Our traditional interpretation of
Revelation 12 in the church is according to the chapter heading: “John sees the imminent
apostasy of the Church—He also sees the War in Heaven in the beginning when
Satan was cast out—He sees the continuation of that war on earth.”

This
interpretation basically reduces Revelation 12 to an interlude wherein the Lord
backtracks and shares with John various bits of information that He wants the
Saints to know about what has happened before the frame of the events set up in
the Book of Revelation.With our
understanding of the three degrees of glory, we may interpret the sun-clothed women
as the church, and the man child as Christ, who ascended to heaven, and then
the fleeing of the church into the wilderness as the apostasy.

However,
there are some things in the text that subtly create problems with this
interpretation.For instance, v1
speaks of the appearance of a great wonder in heaven (the woman). The location
is a little odd. If the woman represents the church, why is the woman located in heaven and not on the earth?

Or if
the woman is in heaven (in the spirit realm), how do those on the earth see her
to wonder over her? The text seems to suggest that this wonder will be
generally visible.

For
another example, if the woman represents the church and the child represents
Christ, why speak of this woman and the man child before recounting the war in heaven when Michael and his angels
fought the devil and his angels and cast them out, which is something we
identify with premortality? Why skip around so much in the timeline?

Or,
if the woman represents the church and the child represents the political
kingdom of God, what good does the child do to anyone if it is caught up to the
throne of God? That seems to put it in a place where it won’t have much
influence, since there are a lot of people that prefer to ignore Jesus, who
also ascended into heaven. If the political kingdom of God is formed then
removed from earth by God, that would be demoralizing to those righteous who
remain. (It would be like restoring the priesthood, creating the offices, and
then translating all priesthood holders so they don’t remain to bless the
church.)

Another
question I had over this interpretation in the chapter is what function it
serves to help the Saints in the last days, either with instruction or with
reassurance. What does it tell us prophetically that we can’t get elsewhere?

It tells us the church will be
persecuted. Okay, we already know that.

It
tells us there was a war in heaven. Okay, we already know that too, from the
Pearl of Great Price. Also from Isaiah.

It
tells us the Saints overcome Satan with the atonement, their testimony, and
their willingness to sacrifice their lives. Okay, but how does that help us
know what’s to come?

Suddenly,
after considering these things, I started to ask myself, “ What if it is NOT
about the past, but actually about the future? What if this chapter is actually
still telling us about events to come on the earth? What if we’ve all
misunderstood this chapter?

Ooo!
Excitement! I read the chapter again. But then I was puzzled. If these events
are in the future, what then are we to make of how it speaks of a war in heaven
with Michael casting out the devil and his angels?And if there will be war in heaven, how would we on the
earth know it?

That’s
when I realized heaven must be used symbolically as a term for something high
up, something ruling. And in fact, it is a very good symbol for government. So
if there is war in heaven, it can be telling us of a war in the government
between forces of good and forces of evil.

Ooo!
Definitely re-examination is needed!

(Fair
warning: This interpretation is going to go into completely uncharted
territory. You don’t have to believe it. It is completely unofficial,
nontraditional, and possibly even kooky, but I’m going to run with it as far as
it takes me and see where it goes and see we can get anything useful or helpful
from it.I reserve the right to
change my mind about it at any time on it in the future and interpret it to
mean something different from what follows.)

So
then, when the beginning tells us of the woman that appeared as a wonder in
heaven, that may tell us that there are righteous forces that appear in
government at this difficult time. (The woman can’t be the church, because the
church as a whole body can’t be elected to government, kids and all. But it
could be a group of righteous members who are elected or appointed.)Then the second wonder in
heaven—the great red dragon—appears to oppose the woman. When the dragon draws
a third part of the stars and casts them to earth, that could represent the
evil forces somehow firing or impeaching or forcing resignation of part of the government that
opposes them.

The
woman is in labor and about to be delivered of a man child that will rule the
nations with a rod of iron, and the dragon waits for the birth, wanting to
devour the child as soon as it is born. This says to me that the good forces of
government are trying to figure out who is the best one to rule over them. It
could be an election caucus.A
woman in labor sounds like a great symbol for the messy nomination and choosing
process of politics. But the dragon waits to see who comes out of it so they
know who to target. The dragon wants to devour the man child, possibly meaning
it wants to absorb him into the beast’s network by getting it to switch sides
or making agreements that will restrict him from moving against the dragon, or
by corrupting him, or whatever.

So
the woman brings forth the man child who is to rule all nations with a rod of
iron, and he is caught up to God and to his throne.

What?

All
along, we have assumed this being caught up to God’s throne represents Christ,
His ascension, and His rule from the heavens. But if this man child is supposed
to be someone in the future who rules, how will he really rule if he’s literally
caught up to heaven? It is as if he is taken away before he can actually do
anything to help.HOWEVER.
If this is actually symbolically talking about a political situation, then a
man child caught up to the throne of God has actually ascended to power on
earth and has been put into office!And if he rules all nations,
then calling that political position of power “the throne of God” seems like a
pretty accurate term, even if it sounds a little blasphemous to us.

But
if so, then why would the woman then flee into the wilderness? It will seem as
though she has won, if her man child is in power.Hmmm.I don’t
know… I would guess that perhaps those who put the man child in power
anticipate some sort of backlash, so they hide from it.At any rate, wherever they flee to, it
has been prepared as a nourishing place, even though they are on the margins,
outside of the main population centers.

Then
there is a war in heaven, or a war in the government between Michael and his
angels and the dragon and his angels. The upshot is that the great dragon is
cast out with his angels. We are told they deceived the whole world, so they did
a lot of lying to everyone. We are also told they were an “accuser of our
brethren…which accused them before our God day and night,” so that hints the
forces of evil have been prosecuting attorneys who tried to swamp the
government with false accusations and with frivolous, malicious lawsuits and
paperwork that wasted time and persecuted the righteous who were the defendants
of said lawsuits.

(Such
a battle is not without precedent in history. There is the story in the Book of
Mormon of Alma and Amulek who were put on trial by Zeezrom in Ammonihah and who
warned the people the unrighteousness of their judges and lawyers were bringing
destruction upon them. There is also a brief story of a time before the coming
of Christ when judges were unlawfully condemning the righteous and there was an
attempt to try them for their crimes.)

We
are told the Saints overcome the dragon with the atonement, with their
testimony, and with their willingness to suffer even to death for their
beliefs. So this tells us the Saints need to stand strong. (This interpretation
makes religious liberty very
important, doesn’t it?)

The
result of the war is that the devil (or the beast) is cast down to the earth
along with his followers, meaning they are removed from power. (Hooray!) No
wonder the Saints celebrate. But the dragon is mad and he persecutes the woman,
since that was the source of his loss of power. The woman flees to the
wilderness and is nourished, and the earth helps the woman when the dragon
pours floods out of his mouth after her. (The floods may represent lies.)So it seems there are two exits into
the wilderness by forces of good.

And
then the dragon is still angry, so he
goes to make war against the remnant of the woman’s seed who keep the
commandments and the testimony of Jesus. This tells me that the dragon targets
the children. How does he target the children? The next chapter Revelation 13
tells of a beast (nearly identical to the dragon) that rises out of the sea and
demands worship from everyone. It is possible the war against the woman’s
children consists of trying to usurp their admiration and draw their wonder so
that they stop worshiping God and worship the beast instead.

So…
how does this interpretation of Revelation 12 help us? It shows us a struggle
in government between good and evil. It shows us the dragon can be cast out, and it shows us that
for that to happen, we have to have firm testimonies and be willing to
sacrifice our lives for the truth, even if it gets us in legal trouble. (This
is another reason why we need to defend religious freedom.) It also tells us it
is important for us to teach our children right and protect them.

Final note #1: Probably some of Trump's enthusiastic followers would like to associate this situation with Trump. I don't though, especially since he doesn't rule all nations. I think the situation is still to come.

Final note #2: On
the topic of religious freedom, I think it is important for us to defend it
today because we have a whole generation of children who are starting to grow
up in this time of incivility. We don’t want them to get the idea that this
general atmosphere of negativity and hate is normal.We don’t want it to be all they have ever known.If they think that kind of thing is
normal, they will do it too, and worse. We don’t want that.

In Zeno’s allegory of the olive trees that Jacob quotes,
there comes a point when the Lord of the vineyard finds all the trees are
corrupted and giving bad fruit. It is interesting to see his and his servant’s diagnosis
of the problem.

First the servant tries to find the silver lining in the
cloud:

And the servant said unto his
master: Behold, because thou didst graft in the branches of the wild olive tree
they have nourished the roots, that they are alive and they have not perished;
wherefore thou beholdest that they are yet good. (Jacob 5:34)

The servant observes the roots are still good, but notice—it
is a bit backward to think that the branches
are nourishing the roots. It is supposed to be the other way around.

In verse 37, the Lord of the vineyard has a different take
on it:

But behold, the wild branches have
grown and have overrun the roots thereof; and because that the wild branches
have overcome the roots thereof it hath brought forth much evil fruit; and
because that it hath brought forth so much evil fruit thou beholdest that it
beginneth to perish; and it will soon become ripened, that it may be cast into
the fire, except we should do something for it to preserve it.

The Lord of the vineyard says the branches have overrun the roots and overcome them. (So the branches may have
thought they were nourishing the roots, but they were overrunning them
instead.)

Then the servant gets a brainwave in verse 48:

And it came to pass that the
servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not
the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the
branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the
strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not
this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?

Loftiness of the vineyard is a great way of describing
pride. Also, I notice it says when the branches overcame the roots, they grew
faster than the roots and took strength to themselves. This is what happens in
individuals too. When a person with no authority gets a notion they can nourish the rest of the
church, they are actually overrunning it. But they think the overrun means they
are stronger and better than everyone else (taking strength to themselves) and
corruption follows.

I think there’s a hint of what to look out for in ourselves.
If we think we are growing faster or are spiritually stronger than others
around us, we may have a problem with pride. (I had this issue some years ago. It makes me shudder to think about it. I am so grateful for the Lord's mercy that He brought me to recognize my error. Because of that experience, my blogging is more to benefit me than for anyone else because the writing I do helps me learn. If anyone else benefits, that is icing on the cake.)

If we have the problem of loftiness and pride, it might be good to open our ears
and see what nourishment we are missing while we think we have the answer to
everything. It might be good to just focus on the basic principles and practices
of the gospel for a long while to make sure we are doing all we can.

There are a few more warnings I notice in this chapter that
are part of the diagnoses of the corrupted trees.

In verse 40:

And the wild fruit of the last had
overcome that part of the tree which brought forth good fruit, even that the
branch had withered away and died.

We might easily apply this to the Nephite civilization and
point to how the Lamanites eventually overcame the righteous Nephites. However,
it is true in individual life as well. If we have both good fruit and bad fruit
in our lives, the bad tends to take over. It’s invasive, so we need to remove
the bad branches, otherwise the good branches will wither away.

In verse 46:

…the trees thereof have become
corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit…But, behold, they have become
like unto the wild olive tree…

Without good fruit, the good olive tree is just like the
wild olive tree. We can’t be like other people who don’t have the gospel. We
have to be different. With good fruit.

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About Me

Michaela Stephens

Arizona, United States

I'm a happily married 32-year old who switched from Electronic Engineering Technology to Literature, Writing, and Film.
I worked for 3 years at ASU as a writing tutor and have over 400 sessions worth of experience helping people with their writing.
I'm the oldest of seven children (5 boys, 2 girls)
I'm a bit of a neat freak and an undeniable bookworm.

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